Israel’s ambassador says he didn’t know recent polling has shown relatively low support for his country among ordinary Canadians.

The solution, said new ambassador Rafael Barak, is more education and especially for Canadian media to teach the public about Israel’s history.

Barak arrived in Ottawa last fall and in Nova Scotia on Monday, part of an effort to build new trade and research ties that the province is also encouraging.

He will speak to Premier Stephen McNeil and Halifax mayor Mike Savage today, and he said in a meeting with The Chronicle Herald’s editorial board that he will pitch the idea of a provincial trade mission. The trip is his first tour outside diplomatic circles, including stops in Quebec, the Maritimes and Ontario.

Considering the warm welcomes he has received, he said he was surprised that a BBC poll in 2013 found that 57 per cent of Canadians believed Israel had a mainly negative influence on the world. Just one-quarter of Canadians viewed Israel as a positive influence.

Those numbers were very similar to the same poll from 2012. In both cases, they saw below-average support in Canada, with an average of 52 per cent of people across 22 countries viewing Israel negatively, compared with Canada’s high-50s result.

“Definitely, I’m not happy if those are the figures,” said Barak.

“I didn’t have this feeling coming to Canada. I know that there are, from time to time, in some universities, expressions of anti-Israel (opinion) in one way or the other, in particular these boycotts and so on and so forth.”

In Ottawa, the leaders of the three main federal parties and Elizabeth May of the Green party have expressed support, he said.

“If I look to my interlocutors, it’s the government of Canada, the political parties of Canada, parliamentarians that I meet in Ottawa. So I don’t feel this is the case in the country, in the total of the country, but I know there are people that don’t feel comfortable.”

Following meetings with Nova Scotia politicians, Barak will spend a day at Dalhousie University, which signed a memorandum of agreement with an Israeli university this winter for a joint ocean research centre.

The announcement prompted a back and forth in the school paper, with one business student saying Dal president Richard Florizone’s participation in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Israel visit was insensitive.

“There are hundreds of Middle Eastern students at Dalhousie who would feel alienated by the university president’s cheerleading,” wrote Mary MacDonald.

Israel is the 17th-biggest buyer of Nova Scotia exports, doing $23.1 million worth of business in 2013, said Toby Koffman, spokesman for the Economic and Rural Development and Tourism Department.

However, 93 per cent of the products it buys from Nova Scotia are pulp and paper, more than half of it newsprint, said Koffman. The province would like to see more sales of clean technology and offshore energy products, as well as education services and medical equipment, he said.

“You can imagine, Israel is a very highly advanced country. They’re looking for top-quality products.”

Barak said he will also meet with representatives from Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., an Israeli container-shipping firm with operations in Halifax.

Canadians haven’t been polled about Israel since the start of this summer’s conflict in Gaza. More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed so far, as well as 67 Israelis, including three civilians.

The conflict drew criticism from United Nations agencies and concern from some of Israel’s allies about waning public support, including Britain’s foreign secretary.

But Canadians and other critics are not always aware of the history of the Jewish people, said Barak, or the fact that there is fierce debate within Israel about its defence policies.

It is the Canadian media’s job to frame the situation in the context of that history, he said. Barak questioned why there was more coverage of deaths in Gaza than those in Syria.

“If you provoke us, we will react. We live in a world of perceptions, and the fact that 3,200 missiles (from Gaza) didn’t hit one Israeli because we protect our citizens does not mean that we are not right.”